4chan Hacked and Moderator Accounts Targeted by Attacker

4chan is an English-language imageboard website. Users generally post anonymously, with the most recent posts appearing above the rest. 4chan is split into various boards with their own specific content and guidelines.

The attacker found the vulnerability and gain access to administrative functions and data from a 4chan database.  The attacker wanted to expose the posting habits of a specific user he didn’t like.

In a blog post, 4chan founder, Christopher Poole, aka "moot" explains the breach: After careful review, we believe the intrusion was limited to imageboard moderation panels, our reports queue, and some tables in our backend database. 

Due to the way the intruder extracted information from the database, we have detailed logs of what was accessed. The logs indicate that primarily moderator account names and credentials were targeted.

4chan Pass users had their Pass credentials accessed, and were notified and offered refunds and lifetime Passes shortly after the discovery. 

As a reminder, all payment information is processed securely by Stripe we never see nor store any of it, and thus no payment information was compromised.

In a 4chan post published last week, a user revealed that the attacker was an Australian individual who wanted to expose “multiple abuses of power and violations of proper mod stewardship.” The attacker allegedly gained access to the details of over 12,000 sold Passes. He’s said to have had access to 4chan’s systems for a week.

They are  patched the vulnerability quickly after it came to out, and have spent and will continue to spend dozens of hours poring over the software and systems to help mitigate and prevent future intrusions.

Author Venkatesh Yalagandula Follow us Google + and Facebook and Twitter